Health plans that require consumers to spend thousands of dollars before insurance kicks in are more common than ever before.

About 40 percent of Americans have health plans with $1,200 or more in deductibles.

The plans are meant to push consumers to make smarter health care choices, but a new study from USC has found they put some people at greater financial risk.

The research, in the April edition of the American Journal of Managed Care, shows people with chronic health conditions, and those with lower incomes, are the most likely to be impacted by a high medical bill stemming from the deductible.

"When they face this bill, it has a serious consequence for them. Not every family can absorb a $2,000 bill without changing their lifestyle," said Neeraj Sood, Director of Research at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics.

"The most vulnerable populations are the ones who are going to face the highest risk."​​To see how a high deductible plan might affect you, here's a breakdown of how they work - and what to look out for:

WHAT DOES HIGH DEDUCTIBLE MEAN, EXACTLY?

The premium is your monthly payment that keeps your name on the health insurance rolls. The deductible is the amount you have to pay before the health insurance kicks in. It could be anywhere from $1200 to $2000 or $3000 -- even up to $10,000.

A top executive at the trade group representing health insurers on Monday warned of premium increases for ObamaCare plans next year, saying the situation is “not a pretty picture right now.”​Matt Eyles, senior executive vice president of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said that insurers “want to make sure people have access to coverage at the most affordable price, but that also has to reflect what the reality is right now and it’s not a pretty picture right now.”

Eyles, who will become CEO of AHIP on June 1, blamed several policies advanced by Republicans in Congress or the administration for the problems.Speaking at an event hosted by The Atlantic, he noted the repeal of the individual mandate in the tax bill in December, which is expected to lead to less healthy people signing up, as well as initiatives from the Trump administration to expand access to cheaper, skimpier plans known as short-term plans, which have also raised fears of siphoning away healthy people and causing an increase in premiums.

Between a third and a half of people age 45 to 59 and a quarter of those 60+ went without needed health care in the past year due to its cost, according to a troubling new survey from the West Health Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago.

“We were surprised by the magnitude of the findings,” said Dr. Zia Agha, chief medical officer at the West Health Institute, a nonprofit applied medical research organization based in San Diego. “And 80% of the people we surveyed had health insurance, so just having insurance does not make you immune to health care costs.”

The researchers at West Health Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago (a nonpartisan research institution) interviewed 1,302 adults. Their findings were released at the American Society on Aging’s 2018 Aging in America conference in San Francisco.​Age 45 to 59 skipping health care

Specifically, the survey found these results for people age 45 to 59 (members of Generation X and boomers) as a result of health care costs:

49% didn’t go to the doctor last year when they were sick or injured

45% skipped a recommended medical test or treatment

43% didn’t go to a dentist when they needed treatment

40% went without a routine physical or other preventive health care

30% didn’t fill a prescription or took less than the prescribed dose of medicine

Age 60+ skipping health care

​The percentages were less dramatic for people 60 + (boomers aged 60 to 72 and Americans older than 72) — perhaps partly because those 65 and older have Medicare. But they are still concerning:

30% didn’t go to a dentist last year when they needed treatment

27% went without a routine physical or other preventive health care

25% didn’t fill a prescription or took less than the prescribed dose of medicine

25% skipped a recommended medical test or treatment

24% didn’t go to the doctor when they were sick or injured

Younger Americans were even more likely to go without health care due to costs last year, the survey found.

Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UA, UAA) today announced that it is notifying users of MyFitnessPal -- the company's food and nutrition application and website -- about a data security issue. On March 25, the MyFitnessPal team became aware that an unauthorized party acquired data associated with MyFitnessPal user accounts in late February 2018. The company quickly took steps to determine the nature and scope of the issue and to alert the MyFitnessPal community of the incident.

If you're not covered by health insurance through your employer or your spouse's employer, then you really care about just one thing, and that's being able to get good health insurance coverage without spending an arm and a leg and without having an astronomically high deductible, so high that basically, you can't even afford to use your insurance.

If you need in your mind an example, consider the average Obamacare health policy. The monthly premium for a family of four – mom, dad, and two kids – is over $1,400.00 a month, with a deductible for the first two people who become sick or injured of around $6,800.00 each. That's basically a yearly cost of 12 x $1,400.00 = $16,800.00 PLUS the deductible of $6,800.00 for a total of $23,600.00 a year BEFORE you can actually use your insurance – and that's if your doctor will accept it.

This article is dedicated to those of us who want and need truly affordable health insurance that we can actually use.

So I’ll ask you something. Have you used Obamacare health insurance? If so then, you’re the last of your kind. Fewer than 10 million Americans even have it. Doctors don't want to accept it, and many insurance companies don't even want to sell it; they've left the Marketplace in droves over the past few years.

Even at the high prices they're charging, they aren't making a profit, because Obamacare changed the game. Most of those 10 million Americans who DO have Obamacare aren't paying for it themselves – taxpayers are footing the bill. And most of those 10 million Americans who do have Obamacare are already sick, running up medical bills. That's hardly a sustainable business plan for insurers, many of whom have simply gotten out of the health insurance business rather than continuing to bleed money.

Rather than sell on the Obamacare Marketplace, many insurance companies have decided to focus their efforts in other areas, like life insurance, disability insurance, and annuities, basically abandoning the individual health insurance market and those of us who need good, affordable health insurance. There was a time not so long ago when there were dozens – maybe hundreds – of companies selling traditional health insurance. Not any longer – the government took over traditional health insurance business. And killed it.

If you walk into an insurance agent's office today, you will find a ton of brochures offering life insurance policies, auto policies, homeowners policies, disability polices. What you won't find very often are health insurance policies. I often drop by the offices of other agents – and find that most of them are either uninsured themselves, or that they are covered under a spouse's employer's group policy. I've found a few agents covered under an Obamacare policy, but they hate it – and before I leave their office, they've learned about my solution and not only do they switch their own coverage, but sign up to sell our plan, too.

Our solution is modern health insurance – a low-cost plan with a zero deductible that you can use at every medical office and every hospital in the country. It's called the Expected Benefits Plan. We call it that because you know what to expect. You know that you can afford it. You know how much will be paid for a particular event or procedure or doctor visit or medication. You know that it will be accepted by any doctor or hospital. You know that you can concentrate on healing and recovering from your accident or illness instead of stressing over medical bills.

Look. For people who are uninsured and for people who make too much money for Obamacare subsidies and for people who just want affordable, usable health insurance, our Expected Benefits Plan is exactly what you've been searching for.

Expected Benefits is a new kind of health insurance. It's what other companies may soon be offering – but we have led the way. It will save you money, it will reduce or eliminate your medical bills, and it will give you peace of mind.

Unlike traditional health insurance, it is easy on your budget, it eliminates deductibles, and it is accepted everywhere. It pays for or helps pay for doctor and dentist visits, lab work, prescriptions, surgeries, broken arms, broken legs, physicals, mammograms, and pretty much whatever else is medically necessary, It lets you talk with a doctor on the phone through the Teladoc service, at no additional cost. If you are diagnosed with a critical illness – heart attack, internal cancer, stroke, kidney failure, major organ transplant – you'll find a $50,000 check in your mailbox to help you while you're recovering. If you're advised to have a surgery, we'll even find the best doctor and the best price and schedule it for you.

And once accepted, you can keep the Expected Benefits coverage until you're age 65, no matter what may happen to your health status.

Let me tell you a little bit about our team. I'm David Ross. I'm a licensed life and health agent based in Atlanta. Our Expected Benefits Plan is currently available in 22 states, and we expect to be adding four more to that list soon. We have dozens of people at our agency in Nashville backing me up, and over 200 people working for you and me at the home office of New Era / Philadelphia American in Houston, the 100-plus year old insurance company behind our Expected Benefits Plan.

And then there are the people who will be working directly for you, as an Expected Benefits policy owner. You'll have the team at LabCorp, providing you with discounts of up to 80% on your medical labwork. You'll have the entire team at Teladoc, a full staff of licensed medical doctors to take your calls 24/7/365 to discuss any minor health issue you may have, who will call in prescriptions for you if necessary. And you'll have over 900,000 medical doctors and medical facilities and over 4,500 hospitals across the country available to take care of you if you are sick or injured.

Right now, if history holds true, someone reading this is pulling their hair out trying to figure out the health insurance maze, and wondering if they can afford quality health insurance. We have figured out the maze for you. And yes, you can afford our quality health insurance.

Let's pause for a minute. We're pretty choosy about who we cover. Unlike Obamacare, which is required to accept everyone, we don't accept people who already have a serious illness. That's how we keep our premiums so low. However, once you're accepted, you're covered until you're age 65 and you're eligible for Medicare – no matter what happens to your health.

Why don’t you tell me about your health insurance needs? Just a few simple questions about your age, who in your family you want to cover, whether you use tobacco, and your zip code – and I can show you how inexpensive your premium will be. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how little our Plan costs compared to a non-subsidized Obamacare policy or to your current group health policy.

Call or email me for your quote. If you like what you hear – and you will – I'll ask you a few questions about your health, and if you qualify, we'll have you and your family covered with awesome, amazing, and affordable health insurance in just a few days.

Healthcare matters can involve a whole host of medical and legal complications. At best, these issues may affect you financially; at worst, they could mean the difference between life and death. Whether you go to the hospital for a routine procedure or an emergency, there are steps you can take to help avoid complications.

1. Have an up-to-date Medical Power of Attorney or Advanced Medical Directive (“Living Will”). In the event you cannot make medical decisions yourself, these documents entrust decisions about your care to a person you designate. Advise your family of your designation so that person is notified when decisions must be made.

2. Make sure your name, identifying information and all other information is completely accurate at each doctor’s appointment, outpatient surgery and hospitalization. Serious problems involving medical care sometimes begin as simple clerical errors. A small error can create a major treatment crisis. Reduce the chance of error by carefully reviewing all your doctor’s office or hospital admissions paperwork. During hospitalization check your hospital wristband for errors.

"What if instead of shelling out hefty fees for a few days of legal help, you paid a monthly membership and got a law firm for life? Well, we're taking legal representation and making some revisions — in the form of accessible, affordable, full-service coverage. Finally, you can live life knowing you have a lawyer in your back pocket who, at the same time, isn't emptying it."

The above blurb is from the home page of LegalShield, a company I represent... and a company whose services I use.

Last May,I went into a cell phone store to pre-order the Samsung S8 for my son. The offer came with a free 3D viewer. As I was completing the paperwork, the sales clerk repeatedly told me, "Because you came in today you're also getting a free Jetpack," some sort of device that lets you use your data blah blah blah. I didn't know what it was, and didn't need it, and told the clerk just that. He kept offering, and eventually I said "Okay, if it's free." He assured me it was.

My mistake.

The next month my bill included service charges for that device, and an ongoing monthly connection fee of $10.

I called the cell phone provider, complained, and after being put on hold a few times, they agreed to remove the charges and cancel the service. I asked, "What do I do with this device?", which was still in the box unused.

"You can keep it," was the reply.

I thought no more of it. The charges stopped appearing on my phone bill.

Seven months later, I began receiving calls and letters from a law firm in another state, demanding $200 for the device. Nothing I said to them would stop their demands. They said they wanted money, not the device. My attempts to get through to someone who cared or who could do something to stop the duns failed.

So I called my LegalShield attorney firm.

Within a few hours I had had a long chat with an attorney, explaining the situation. She was as attentive and helpful as if my issue involved $200,000 or $2 million, not $200.

Soon she had written a letter -- which I saw and approved before it was mailed -- to the law firm who was doing collections for the phone company.

Within a week, she had heard back from not just the law firm doing the collections, but also from an attorney for the cell phone provider. We had a quick three-way phone call -- my attorney, their attorney, and myself. Within minutes they emailed me a pre-paid shipping label.

Voila! I sent the the device. No hassle. No damage to my credit. And to top it off, I had a verbal and a written apology from the company's attorney..

LegalShield attorneys can help you with any legal matter, large or small. Tax disputes. Audits. Debt collection. Fraud. Leases. Estate planning. Traffic tickets. Child protective services issues. And so much more. When you call your provider law firm, they assign an attorney knowledgeable and experienced in handling cases like yours.

And it is true that health insurance policies offered in the Obamacare Marketplace ("Affordable Care Act" policies) are astronomically expensive, have ridiculously high deductibles, and are only available from a dwindling number of companies. This recent article reports rates for ACA coverage are expected to jump another 90% in the near future.

What the mainstream news doesn't tell you is this: LOW-COST HEALTH INSURANCE IS AVAILABLE!

You cannot afford to NOT have health insurance.

Just because you consider yourself “healthy” doesn't mean you can afford to go uninsured.

I recall a man who told me just that a few years ago. He was hesitant to buy insurance, being a 40-something who never went to the doctor. He finally decided to get coverage for himself and his new wife, mostly out of concern over the then-existent tax penalty for not having coverage.

He went the next year-and-a-half paying his premiums, but never even going to the doctor.

And then – he was shot. A totally random event put him in the hospital with serious injuries and serious medical bills.

Another client, a sixty-year old man, the owner of an auto body shop, didn't have coverage when I met him. His reason for not having health insurance? He said his insurance had gotten too expensive so he had dropped it for himself and his employees. When I told him about our low-cost policy, he jumped at the chance to sign up.

Seven months later he had a heart attack, and almost immediately had over $75,000 in medical expenses. His new insurance plan, the new one I helped him get, covered his expenses, and all he had to worry about was getting well.

Not all stories end as well.

Recently a friend on Facebook posted a link to a GoFundMe page, asking for donations to help pay medical bills for her uninsured daughter-in-law who had been severely injured in an automobie accident. The post said the hospital had dismissed her after only four days because she didn't have insurance, though she still needs additional care and therapy. Why didn't a young mother have health insurance? Did she think she couldn't afford to be covered, or did she think she would never need health insurance?

She could have had a great health insurance plan for about $120 a month.

The man who got shot had coverage – including dental insurance plus an extra critical illness rider that would pay him $50,000 should he be diagnosed with a critical illness – for about $220 a month. That includes both him and his wife.

The 60-year old's coverage cost him about $400 a month, and saved him over $75,000.

These are incredibly low rates, and are certainly affordable for most people. Of course, no one likes paying for something they aren't “using.” Heck, I don't like paying for things I do use, like cell phone service and gasoline.

But like cell phones and gasoline, in today's world, health insurance is a necessity.

After practicing medicine for 20 years, I’ve become adept at “clarifying” to insurance companies why patients are taking certain medications. The same medications appear to trigger red flags for both long-term care and life insurance companies. ​Their “concern” makes sense for some medications because they are used for serious chronic illnesses, but for others, the insurance companies are worried about your lifestyle. Most on this list are important medications so do not stop taking them because you’re concerned about rejection and do not omit them from your forms. Instead, along with your physician, you can clarify and appeal their decision.

Here are the ten worst medications to be taking that will trigger a “no” or a further review if applying for life insurance or long-term care insurance.

Namenda (memantine) or Aricept (donepezil). One of the more obvious red flags, dementia is expensive for Long-term care insurance plans because folks with dementia are often physically healthy and their care is expensive. Pro tip: be careful here because Namenda is also prescribed for migraine prevention and may trigger an unnecessary alarm.

Hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphineaka “Opioids.” Long-term use of pain medication raises red flags for insurance companies and almost always results in a closer review. Why? Because costs associated with chronic pain patients taking opioids are substantial and range from 560 to 635 billion per year in the U.S. in 2010. Insurance companies run for the hills because of that.

Xanax (alprazolam), Ativan (lorazepam) and Valium (diazepam) are benzodiazepines that will lead to a closer review of your application. Why? Several studies have shown an association between benzodiazepines and risk of death. In folks 65 years or older benzodiazepines increase the risk of falls and fracture-related mortality. Some studies have found a threefold or higher increase in the risk of all-cause mortality among adult populations using benzodiazepines even for durations shorter than one month.

Sick patients may feel they have no choice but to sign up for a loan to receive treatment. And the quick loan process may leave them with expenses they can ill afford to pay.

Laura Cameron, then three months pregnant, tripped and fell in a parking lot and landed in the emergency room last May; her blood pressure was low, and she was scared and in pain. She was flat on her back and plugged into a saline drip when a hospital employee approached her gurney to discuss how she would pay her hospital bill.

Though both Cameron, 28, and her husband, Keith, have insurance, the bill would likely come to about $830, the representative said. If that sounded unmanageable, she offered, they could take out a loan through a bank that had a partnership with the hospital.

The hospital employee was “fairly forceful,” said Cameron, who lives in Fayetteville, Ark. “She certainly made it clear she preferred we pay then, or we take this deal with the bank.”

Private doctors’ offices and surgery centers have long offered such no- or low-interest financing for procedures not covered by insurance, like plastic surgery, or to patients paying themselves for an expensive test or procedure with a fixed price.​But promoting bank loans at hospitals and, particularly, emergency rooms raises concerns, experts say. For one thing, the cost estimates provided — likely based on a hospital’s list price — may be far higher than the negotiated rate ultimately paid by most insurers. Sick patients, like Cameron, may feel they have no choice but to sign up for a loan since they need treatment. And the quick loan process, usually with no credit check, means they may well be signing on for expenses they can ill afford to pay.

You pay a certain amount each month for health insurance hoping in the end, it will save you money on your health care. In this 11 Listens, one man ended up paying more for a visit to a walk-in clinic than if he didn't use his insurance.

"I mean is this legal? I don’t know," said Jon Luke Hendricks.Hendricks went to Excel Health in Haskell for his son's ear infection.

"We processed our insurance without any questions," said Hendricks.

He got the bill. $150 dollar for the office visit, plus $50 for a flu test. Because of his in-network discount, he was left with $110 bill. He didn't question it until he heard another patient only paid $75 for their entire visit.

He called the clinic and found out their walk-in fee without insurance was $75, but because he used insurance, he was charged $35 dollars more than that.

"It’s sad that I’m paying a large portion of my check for insurance and yet I have to pay more to process insurance," said Hendricks.

So we called around and found out most urgent cares or walk-in clinics will offer a discount base fee for paying up front. Excel health charges $75. MedExpress charges $119. Central Arkansas Urgent Care charges $110. These prices are often half of what someone with insurance will be billed. Keep in mind if you use the self-pay rate, it won’t go towards your deductible.

"I just feel like people should know you might have a better option. If your deductible is high, you may be better off paying up front,” said Hendricks.

With our Expected Benefits Plan, you can elect to pay cash anywhere and then be reimbursed. For regular doctor visits, Level 2 will pay you $80 every time you go (up to 20 times per year). For a visit to a Walk-in Clinic or Urgent Care facility -- the kind of facility discussed in the above article, the insurance company will pay you $125. Do the math.

If the man in the article had our insurance, but paid cash for his $75 visit, after submitting his bill to the insurance company he would have pocketed $50.00!

After Elizabeth Moreno had back surgery in late 2015, her surgeon prescribed an opioid painkiller and a follow-up drug test that seemed routine -- until the lab slapped her with a bill for $17,850.

A Houston lab had tested her urine sample for a constellation of legal and illicit drugs, many of which, Moreno said, she had never heard of, let alone taken."I was totally confused. I didn't know how I was going to pay this," said Moreno, 30, who is finishing a degree in education at Texas State University in San Marcos and is pregnant with twins.

Her bill shows that Sunset Labs LLC charged $4,675 to check her urine for a slew of different types of opioids: $2,975 for benzodiazepines, a class of drugs for treating anxiety, and $1,700 more for amphetamines. Tests to detect cocaine, marijuana and phencyclidine, an illegal hallucinogenic drug also known as PCP or angel dust, added $1,275 more.

The lab also billed $850 to test for buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid addiction, and tacked on an $850 fee for two tests to verify that nobody had tampered with her urine specimen.​Total bill: $17,850 for lab tests that her insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, refused to cover, apparently because the lab was not in her insurance network. The insurer sent Moreno an "explanation of benefits" that says it would have valued the work at just $100.92.

The battle against cybercriminals is always evolving. That's because when we catch on to their scams they change them up to find more victims.​Which is why we're always having to come up with more secure ways of protecting our critical information. Can you imagine the damage that could be done if a hacker is able to get access to sensitive data on your smartphone?

Well, there's a new scam dubbed porting going around that would do just that.

What is a porting scam?​The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning Americans about a fairly new scam making the rounds. It's known as a porting or port-out scam.

It works like this. A fraudster finds out critical information about you such as your name, phone number, Social Security number, date of birth and more. Much of this information is obtainable on the Dark Web thanks to the massive Equifax data breach that we learned about last year.

Once the criminal has this information they call your mobile phone service provider pretending to be you, and tell them that you're switching to another company but want to keep your phone number. Transferring your number from say Verizon to AT&T is a process called porting.

The porting process takes up to 24 hours to complete. During this time both phones will be functional. Meaning, any text messages that you receive on your phone will also be seen by the scammer on the phone your number is being transferred to.

This opens the door for all kinds of problems. If you have two-factor authentication set up on your bank accounts, or any online sites for that matter, the scammer will be able to get the code needed to log into your account. From there, you could become a victim of identity theft and even have money stolen from your bank accounts.

Now, don't let this turn you against two-factor authentication. It's an important security feature that you should be using whenever possible.

The problem isn't two-factor, it's the criminals trying to rip you off. There are ways to prevent falling victim to these types of scams, keep reading for suggestions.

A pursuit of a stolen car ended with the arrest of not only the alleged teenaged thief, but also the car's owner.

Joseph Brummett, 29, reported to police in Manchester that a teenager had stolen his Mercedes at gunpoint in the 900 block of Interstate Drive. A Tennessee Highway Patrolman saw the car shortly thereafter and began a pursuit that soon went into Rutherford County, where it was stopped with spike strips deployed by sheriff's deputies.

Police found the pistol Brummett had described in the Mercedes' floor board and charged the 15-year-old driver with aggravated robbery, robbery, unlawful possession of a weapon, vandalism and evading arrest and booked him into the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center.

Seattle's leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney resigned as federal prosecutors leveled allegations that he used immigrants’ identities to open credit cards.

Prosecutors with the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section claim ICE Chief Counsel Raphael Sanchez used the fraudulently obtained credit accounts to defraud the creditors. The scheme is alleged to have run for four years before it was discovered last fall.

Sanchez is alleged to have stolen the identities of seven people involved in immigration proceedings. Federal prosecutors contend Sanchez stole from American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, Discover and JPMorgan Chase.

“Sanchez devised and intended to devise a scheme.... Using the personally identifying information of seven aliens in various stages of immigration proceedings with the United States Immigrant and Customs Enforcement to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Luke Case and Jessica Harvey said in court papers.​In a Tuesday email to SeattlePI, Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas said Sanchez resigned Monday, the day he was charged. He served as chief counsel in the agency's Seattle office.

For several years now, Publix has offered antibiotics and select other medications absolutely free of charge at its pharmacies. These include:

Amoxicillin

Ampicillin

Ciprofloxacin (excluding Ciprofloxacin XR)

Penicillin VK

Sulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim (SMZ-TMP)

In addition to the free antibiotics, adults with diabetes or high blood pressure can also get a free 90-day supply of metformin, Lisinopril or amlodipine with a prescription.

But now the regional grocery player has a new offer for pharmacy customers that you’ll want to take note of.You probably already know that a lot of other retailers have offers of a 30-day supply of select generics for $4 or a 90-day supply for $10. Well, Publix is lowering that price to only $7.50 for a 90-day supply.​That’s just $2.50 for a 30-day supply!

And while the list of generics being offered is smaller at Publix than at a Walmart or Target, if your medication is on the Publix list and the store is located near you, why not take advantage of the savings?

Benefits you expect at prices you can afford. Call us today at 678-654-9500 to apply for our NEW Expected Benefits Group Healthcare Plan for 10 or more employees. This is guaranteed issue coverage. You cannot be turned down.

Obamacare is a crony-politically-connected program that has punished Americans who need the exact opposite. Government must GET OUT of the healthcare industry. Ron Paul discusses on today's Liberty Report.

Hooray! The "individual mandate" that required that you have ACA-compliant health insurance or pay a hefty tax penalty is no more!

You can now buy or not buy whatever health insurance you want, instead of feeling forced to choose between Bad and Worse on the Obamacare Marketplace.

My Expected Benefits Plan has always been, and still is, the best choice for covering yourself, your family, and your employees if you're a small business owner.

And it costs about half what you'd pay for an Obamacare plan without subsidies.​The Expected Benefits Plan has a zero deductible, and is part of the MultiPlan/PHCS Network. It's accepted by over 900,000 medical doctors and chiropractors, and at over 4,000 hospitals nationwide.

“When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means ObamaCare is being repealed,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “We have essentially repealed ObamaCare and we will come up with something much better.”

The GOP tax overhaul gets rid of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which requires almost all Americans to purchase health insurance or pay a fine.

Trump said he refrained from playing up that measure because he was worried about how the news media would report it, but added “now that it’s approved, I can say that.”

Despite Trump’s claim, the tax bill does not repeal ObamaCare entirely.People will still be able to purchase insurance through individual marketplaces, Medicaid expansion is preserved and consumer protections remain in place.

But health-care experts worry that without the mandate, premiums in the individual insurance market could spike, competition could decrease and more people will become uninsured.

Before turning to taxes, Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress tried multiple times to repeal ObamaCare but failed.

Trump offered his first in-person comments on the tax bill after the Senate passed it on a party-line vote just after midnight Wednesday.

The House is expected to vote on the legislation again Wednesday afternoon, sending it to the president's desk in what will be the first major legislative achievement for Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress.

Cara Pressman sobbed in the big red chair in her living room. The 15-year-old tried to absorb the devastating news relayed by her parents: that their insurance company, Aetna, denied her for a minimally invasive brain surgery that could end the seizures that have haunted her since she was 9 years old.

"When my parents told me, I went kind of blank and started crying," she said. "I cried for like an hour."

Her friends had been lined up to visit her in the hospital for the surgery three days away, on Monday, October 23. Between tears, she texted them that the whole thing was off.It was supposed to be a joyous weekend. Cara's grandparents had come to town to celebrate their 90th birthdays, a jubilant party with more than 100 family and friends crowding her home. The party did go on -- just with a lot more stress.

Cara had multiple complex partial seizures that weekend. When the seizures strike, her body gets cold and shakes, and she zones out for anywhere from 20 seconds to two minutes, typically still aware of her surroundings. Her seizures can be triggered by stress, by being happy, by exerting herself -- almost anything. "It's like having a nightmare but while you're awake," she said.

In the six weeks since the denial, Cara has had more than two dozen seizures affecting her everyday life. Her message to Aetna is blunt: "Considering they're denying me getting surgery and stopping this thing that's wrong with my brain, I would probably just say, 'Screw you.' ''

This year’s largest corporate acquisition will combine one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) and pharmacy operators with one of its oldest health insurers, whose national business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans.

The deal comes after Aetna’s $37 billion plan to acquire smaller U.S. health insurance peer Humana Inc <HUM.N> was blocked in January by a U.S. federal judge over antitrust concerns. A proposed combination of peers Anthem Inc <ANTM.N> and Cigna Corp <CI.N> was also shot down.

Aetna shareholders stand to receive $207 per share in the deal with CVS, the companies said. The consideration comprises $145 per share in cash and 0.8378 CVS shares for each Aetna share. Reuters first reported the terms of the deal earlier on Sunday.

Aetna shareholders will own about 22 percent of the combined company, while CVS shareholders will own the remainder.

The companies said that cost synergies in the second full year after the transaction closes — 2020 if the deal closes in the second half of 2018 as they expect — would amount to $750 million. They foresee it adding to adjusted earnings per share by the low- to mid-single digit percentage points.

Their vision expands beyond capitalizing on CVS’ existing MinuteClinic structure, which largely offers preventative services like flu shots, the companies’ chief executives said in an interview.​“When you walk into CVS there’s the pharmacy. What if there’s a vision and audiology center, and perhaps a nutritionist, and some sort of care manager?” CVS CEO Larry Merlo said.

A headline this week in The Hill shocked me: "ObamaCare enrollment strong in third week of sign-ups." The Hill is a serious, well-respected, non-partisan news source. But any reader taking this headline at face value would be seriously misled about what is really going on with Obamacare enrollments during this fifth open enrollment season.

The Hill's reporter correctly notes that "the pace of sign-ups has exceeded last year: In the first 26 days of last year's open enrollment period, 2.1 million people signed up compared to the 2.3 million people who signed up the first 18 days of this year's period."

Those figures imply that the daily rate of sign-ups this year is outpacing last year's rate by 58% [originally reported as 28%: Update #2]. Surely that is evidence of strong enrollment, no?

The reason it is not is buried at the tail-end of the story where the reporter notes "the enrollment period ends Dec. 15, which is about half as much time as people had to sign up last year."

Yipes! If enrollees have only half the time to sign up, then by pure arithmetic, the daily enrollment pace needs to be double last year's in order for total enrollment at the end of the enrollment period to match the level reach at the end of last year's enrollment period: 12,216,003.

But if current enrollment is 158% [originally reported as 128%: Update #2] of last year's when it needs to be 200%, a more accurate way to frame this year's performance would be to say that Obamacare is on track to sign up 21%[originally reported as 36%: Update #2]fewer enrollees than last year (i.e., 158/200=79% which would mean signing up 21% fewer). [originally reported as 128/200=64% which would meaning signing up 36% fewer: Update #2]. That's a pretty bad news story rather far removed from the rosy picture painted by The Hill's headline.

The Senate this week is expected to vote on a tax bill that includes a controversial provision to repeal Obamacare’s tax penalty on the uninsured.

Democrats and some conservative policy analysts fret that if Congress scuttles the so-called individual mandate, insurance premiums will rise.

The reverse may be closer to the truth: Premiums for Obamacare policies next year will be so high that millions will be exempt from the tax penalty whether Congress repeals it or not. Even the skimpiest coverage now costs so much that many uninsured people with six-figure incomes will be exempt.

The individual mandate is repealing itself.

The mandate represented a grand bargain between the government and the insurance industry. Insurers agreed not to base premiums on applicants’ medical conditions, and in exchange, the government agreed to subsidize premiums and penalize the uninsured. In theory, the threat of tax penalties would induce healthy people to pay an unfairly high price for a product they wouldn’t otherwise buy, creating a stable insurance pool that would generate billions in profits for insurers.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Healthy people have largely shunned the exchanges, making the individual health-insurance market a losing proposition for most insurers. The number of people with individual policies, which grew during Obamacare’s first two years, has been shrinking since 2016. The erosion has been most pronounced among those who earn too much to receive premium subsidies.

So why aren’t more people who refuse to buy Obamacare policies forced to pay tax penalties? One reason is that the Obamacare statute does not permit the IRS to collect the penalty in cases where premiums would exceed 8 percent of an uninsured person’s income. That is a high bar: The average household spent 5.5 percent of its income on health-insurance premiums last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

David Ross is a licensed life & health insurance agent representing heath insurers National General, Manhattan Life, and New Era / Philadelphia American, as well as numerous life insurance carriers. David Ross is an Independent Associate and Director of LegalShield.

LegalShield, New Era/Philadelphia American, PrimeStar, Manhattan Life, Voya Financial, Banner Life, Transamerica, Protective Life, Securian/Minnesota Life, Cincinnati Life, Illinois Mutual, Mutual of Omaha, and National General are each separate business entities and are not affiliated with each other.